Russians still get bronze despite Dqed Valieva
GEneva—despite the disqualification of Kamila Valieva in a doping case, the Russian figure skating team still stands to finish on the podium and get bronze medals from the 2022 Beijing Olympics behind the United States and Japan.
The Americans moved into the gold medal position in the team event and Japan has been upgraded to silver from bronze.
The demoted Russians drop into third place, one point ahead of Canada even after being stripped of the points the then-15-year-old Valieva earned on the ice.
The International Skating Union (ISU) published an amended standings from the Beijing competition on Tuesday that removed Valieva’s maximum 10 points from each of her two events but did not add an extra point to the other teams below her.
The proposal by the ISU is likely to provoke fresh legal action at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which on Monday disqualified Valieva from the 2022 Olympics and other events, and banned her for four years until December 2025.
Russian Olympic officials said Tuesday they will appeal to regain the Olympic title, arguing that ISU rules mean sanctions against Valieva “cannot be the basis for reviewing the results of the team event.”
A second challenge at CAS could come from fourth-place Canada because the rest of the field did not have their points increased by the ISU following Valieva’s disqualification.
“Skate Canada strongly disagrees with the ISU’S position on this matter and will consider all options to appeal this decision,” the country’s figure skating body said in a statement Tuesday.
The final decision on awarding medals is for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which the head of the United States Olympic and Paralympic (USOPC) body said Tuesday is “as eager as we are” to get the gold medals to the American skaters.
“There is no scenario at this point in which Team USA is not the gold medal winners,” USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland told reporters on a call, “so we are focused on getting the gold medals awarded.”
Skating’s world body is responsible for amending the Olympic event result and said Tuesday it had consulted with the IOC.
“The ISU is in close contact with the International Olympic Committee and the relevant ISU member federations in regard to the implementation of this decision,” the governing body said Tuesday.